ADVENT PRAYERS: First Week

First Week

All-powerful God, increase our strength of will for doing good that Christ may find an eager welcome at his coming and call us to his side in the kingdom of heaven, where he lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit one God, forever and ever.

AMEN.

Source: http://www.loyolapress.com/prayer-for-lighting-the-advent-wreath-candles.htm

New Mosaic of San Pedro Calungsod in Crypt of St. Peter's Basilica

(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis was scheduled to bless a mosaic of San Pedro Calungsod in the crypt under St. Peter’s Basilica on Thursday afternoon.

San Pedro Calungsod, the Philippines’ second saint was canonized October 21, 2012, in the Year of the Faith. Just a year after, through the efforts of Ambassador Mercedes A. Tuason, Philippine ambassador to the Holy See and through the inspiration of His Eminence Emeritus, Ricardo Cardinal Vidal, the image of San Pedro Calungsod in mosaic was scheduled to be installed next to the tomb of Pope Paul VI on Thursday. The image was crafted by Studio del Mosaico, Fabrica di San Pietro. Some 600 different tones, shades and tints were used to complete the work. It has been said, “if an image is worth a thousand words, an image in mosaic is worth a million.” San Pedro is depicted as a young man wearing camisa de chino, with a martyr’s palm pressed to his chest and carrying the Doctrina Christiana.

San Pedro Calungsod’s faithfulness to God is a perfect example for every one of us, today especially, to the Filipino whose faith could be wavering due to the trials and difficulties presented by the recent calamities. A Eucharistic celebration presided by Luis Antonio G. Cardinal Tagle was scheduled to follow the blessing of the image, dedicated to the victims of Typhoon Haiyan.







Source: http://www.news.va/en/news/new-mosaic-of-san-pedro-calungsod-in-crypt-of-st-p

In Public View: The Bones of ST. PETER THE APOSTLE

To mark the end of the Year of Faith, the Vatican has for the first time publicly displayed the bones of St. Peter. While no pope has ever definitively declared the fragments to belong to the apostle Peter, Pope Paul VI in 1968 said fragments found in the necropolis under St Peter’s Basilica were “identified in a way that we can consider convincing”.

The bones were discovered in 1939 in an excavation of the Vatican Necropolis below the main altar at Saint Peter’s Basilica, which has been the consistent traditional burial place of the first Pope since antiquity. The excavation, ordered by Pope Pius XII, found the bones in a first century funerary wall creche, with a Greek inscription of ”Petros eni”, or “Peter is here”. The bones were found wrapped in purple and gold threaded cloth. Scientific study of the bones showed them to be of a “robust” man in his 60′s-70′s at the time of death.

The relics, normally kept in the private chapel of the Pope’s Vatican apartments, were presented to tens of thousands of pilgrims who gathered to catch a glimpse of the relics. The eight fragments of bone between two and three centimetres (around one inch) long were displayed on an ivory bed within a bronze chest on a pedestal in St. Peter’s Square.

Reflecting upon the relics of St. Peter, whose very name means “Rock”, and their location below the Main Altar of St. Peter’s Basilica on the Vatican Hill, one can not help but meditate on Peter’s confession in the Gospel of Matthew , and Our Lord’s words to him in Matthew 16:18:

“And so I say to you, you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it.”

Source: http://www.ucatholic.com/news/relics-of-st-peter/

A Prayer for Guidance...

PRAYER after the Storm...

God of heaven and earth,
Source of All, The storm passed,
The tempest moved on.

Thank you for the kinship of neighbors and friends. As we work together to clean up after the squall.

Thank you for providing safety to my family and friends throughout the gale.

Thank you for the emergency and rescue workers who kept watch and risked their lives for our community.

Bless all who were injured with healing and recovery.

Provide food and clothing, warmth and comfort, to all in need.

PANGINOON... Gabayan nyo po kami. 



Prayer Source: http://tobendlight.com/2011/02/02/after-the-storm/ 

A Prayer for the coming Typhoon

Let us pray...

O God, Master of this passing world, hear the humble voices of your children. The Sea of Galilee obeyed your order and returned to its former quietude; you are still the Master of land and sea. We live in the shadow of a danger over which we have no control. The Ocean, like a provoked and angry giant, can awake from its seeming lethargy, overstep its conventional boundaries, invade our land and spread chaos and disaster.

During this typhoon season, we turn to You, O loving Father. Spare us from past tragedies whose memories are still so vivid and whose wounds seem to refuse to heal with the passing of time. O Virgin, Star of the Sea, Our Beloved Mother, we ask you to plead with your Son in our behalf, so that spared from the calamities common to this area and animated with a true spirit of gratitude, we will walk in the footsteps of your Divine Son to reach the heavenly Jerusalem where a storm-less eternity awaits us. Amen.

Our Father… Hail Mary… Glory Be…